by phillipw | Mar 18, 2024 | BR, DE, OR, TI
Winged Deer Tongue on a Sunless Tuesday Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Deer tongue leaves The local council mowed the grass along The edge where buses come and go. My scooter drives me past and...
by phillipw | Jan 21, 2024 | AB, AE, BE, DE, ES, PH, Uncategorized, YA
Awe of the Heavenly Bodies Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The moon would kill to have a face the shape And beauty that yours shows, the smoothness, force, The splendor of your dazzle with escape...
by phillipw | Oct 18, 2023 | DE, RO
Pastel Death The petals, lavender and pink and white, Have fallen, fallen on each other, by Each other, making little heaps here slight And heaps there slighter, as they fell to die Beneath the living bushes and the flowers Alive above these ones. ...
by phillipw | Aug 21, 2023 | CH, DE, ST
Tiny or Immense, Who Cares? Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The hope we need at break of day waits, small, And does not have to be as large as sky And cosmos in the blue, but only tall Enough for each...
by phillipw | May 27, 2023 | CO, DE, PO
My Treatment of You is Far Worse Supposing that you wrote a new computer tongue, String codes, a new computer language, whole, From start to finish new, completely strung Out like a spider’s web from you, its scroll From nowhere else but from your mind—and you Then...
by phillipw | May 1, 2023 | CA, DE, PE
We Had a Dog Once We had a dog once whom (?) my brother killed. This little doggie should have lived a long, Long time because she was so small. She filled My mother’s heart with little warmths like song Despite the high-pitched barking, barking...
by phillipw | Apr 23, 2023 | AR, DE, DI, GR, PH, SC, Uncategorized
Figuring Futilely on the Death Date of Shakespeare “But thy eternal summer shall not fade” ~ Sonnet 18 The statue still defies his death or hers Two thousands years or more beyond the grave Or urn of ashes, shaping that prefers The perfect lie that, carving, Greeks...
by phillipw | Apr 10, 2023 | AU, DE, EN, SP
Changing Changelessly Will Meet Its Fate Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Mountain cherry blooms Fall. Petals scatter over Water-wheel and brook. ~ Chigetsu (Englished by Phillip Whidden The water wheel...
by phillipw | Jan 28, 2023 | DE, SN, SW
Windsor Swans and Stillness Because their silence Broods complete in winter snow, White swans disappear. ~ Phillip Whidden They know themselves. They know their whiteness shines. Perhaps they have a slight acquaintance with The...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2023 | CO, DE
Yet Enough A sonnet is not much in little but Enough in little. Cosmic, no, yet small Is how the universe began. A hut With kings’ and shepherds’ rhymes involves a sprawl. The form explodes inside itself, its shell The force of...
by phillipw | Jan 10, 2023 | DE, TR
Ultraviolet Poetry True poetry tries not to be a phrase Or meaning, but a color God forgot To make, a tint of blue perhaps, a phase https://images.app.goo.gl/wA9L2aQmRaqN9KgU9 Of orange, that purple punctured Jesus sought When vinegar in sponge was forced...
by phillipw | Jan 8, 2023 | CH, DE, TO
Communion Under the cherry Blooms there is no one who is An utter stranger. ~ Issa, Englished by Phillip Whidden Some circumstances turn us all to friends Or bring us closer than stray strangers set Apart. The pinkness arching...
by phillipw | Jan 2, 2023 | DE, PO, RE, RO, SU
Heart Disease Men think to use gold, trivialities, To turn their superstitions, nonsense of Their so-called thought, to firm realities. They pile up symbols of agape love, Like golden crucifixes, golden rings And gilded crosses all around a snap Of...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2022 | CE, DE, WI
Wind Blowing Stars, Black Knapweed and Tormentil Among Tombstones “For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” ~ King James Version (KJV) Psalm 103:16 The universe is like a field of flowers That used to be a...
by phillipw | Nov 30, 2022 | DE, FR, QU, WH
The Verges of Oblivion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem These ones lie now in death except in scraps Like tombstones, marriage licenses, and birth Certificates. From these no useful maps Can...
by phillipw | Sep 18, 2022 | BE, DE, EL, MO, QU
cows two days before a funeral Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Proverbs 26:11 When Queen Elizabeth is dead, brown cows Will, still, be lying in the Windsor fields. The autumn fields will hint...
by phillipw | Sep 4, 2022 | CO, DE, JO, KE, PO, RO, SP, TU
Autumn and the Spanish Steps Though waiting for the wind so long, the leaves Know patience, or at least they know no dread. The autumn wind is patient, too, perceives Their stoicism wearing orange and red, October yellow even, brighter in Their bravery. ...
by phillipw | Aug 20, 2022 | CH, DE
Cherry Petals and Bronze The temple bell resounds right through the white Of cherry blossoms making them more pale, Transparent almost. They become more slight. The sound rings sacred, making them a veil For death since April clothes herself in doom. Their...
by phillipw | Jun 5, 2022 | DE, DY, MO
Sleeping On top, a pale, thin blanket, gray; below A plain white sheet, and next a pink, strong pink And white-striped nightie, then the scratched up dough Of old-age flesh, no use to try to prink Her up with wig or Positano clothes She...
by phillipw | Jun 4, 2022 | DE, DY, MO
At Last “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” ~ Edgar Allan Poe Although her hair has not been tinted or Recolored, it has lavender inside It, peeking out toward death’s wide...
by phillipw | May 28, 2022 | DE, DY, MA, WH
As She Lies on Her Deathbed The tulip petals have been turned to pale Translucent beauty in their death. The oval petals have become a veil For ghosts to wear, like fragrance from the breath Of phantoms. Lavender has faded, dawn Reduced, a fading caused by...
by phillipw | May 18, 2022 | DE, MA, WH
Beyond Beyond this writing of ourselves upon Eternity, we need the finite veins Of heart. It teaches love is not withdrawn When we have left. Love hovers leaving stains As breath upon the air of heaven’s light. The light and air both...
by phillipw | Apr 24, 2022 | DE, PE
Peony Darker Pink Speckling Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The mottling that comes before the death Of peonies is beautiful and yet An ugliness, a patent shibboleth Belonging to...
by phillipw | Apr 24, 2022 | DE, HA, UN
Afterlife of Redolence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The flowers across the fields of asphodels Are white, white, white, according to the myth. These meadows help to cast the drowse-like...
by phillipw | Apr 3, 2022 | CR, DE, GO
Sapphire Surprise Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When gods first started making humans from . . . The bits of dirt around the earth . . . , the shapes Were much the same if made of dust...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | BR, DE, RU, SE, Ta
There’s Poetry and Then There’s Poetry “There are three good things in this world. One is to read poetry, another is to write poetry, and the best of all is to live poetry.” ~ Rupert Brooke. The schoolboy grown to be a poet found Intensest poetry inside the holes Of...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | AM, BI, DE, DO, RU, SE, Ta
Taatamata and Denham Russell-Smith The evidence, it seems, implies that stuff With women caused him greatest grief, except For Taatamata. Mother was enough To force him to desire control. She kept Him on the tightest lead as best she might And love for Ka produced a...
by phillipw | Mar 15, 2022 | AN, BR, DE, GA, RU, SE
Stranger and Not Stranger “Youth is stranger than fiction.” ~ Rupert Brooke The two re-met two nights. Young Brooke was known To be opposed to what they were about To do. The other had been nursing overblown Emotions for the poet, years. A stout...
by phillipw | Mar 14, 2022 | BR, DE, IN, RU, SA, ST
Not Religion but Death At first church fame held up his lines to heights Near immortality. Saint Paul’s robed Dean Had read “The Soldier” in the lectern rites Of Christ’s domed space before the altar screen. It seems that Brooke knew this. ...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2022 | DE, RU, Ta
England’s Inoculation and Therapy for the Virus Called War, April 4 and St. George’s Day, 2015 Fate slapped him in his face and carried on With tattooed beauty on its fingers, palm, And skin much longer like a lingering dawn. His sonnet read out loud as if a psalm...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | BR, DE, FO, Ho, RU
Denham and Truth Unveiled, Brown Hair, Sonnet Blue Eyes; the Purple and Black Cap of Rupert’s and Denham’s School House The black and purple fell away. He knocked The cap for fun but also so that he Could see his hair. The light on it so shocked Him that it made a...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | BR, DE, GA, LO, RU, SE
Denham and his Thoughts while Being Fucked by the Poet Rupert Brooke–a Threesome of Sonnets Pain While Playing Games We talk at first as though we do not know Why we are there. Of course he knows. I sort Of know and hope, as always. A slow And...
by phillipw | Mar 8, 2022 | AM, BI, BR, DE, GA, LO, RU, SE, Uncategorized
Denham Alone Since He Alone was Not Alone– A Foursome of Sonnets Outside and Finally In “A kiss makes the heart young again and wipes out all the years.” ~Rupert Brooke Each year he finds a new one he can love. The first (and last) was Denham...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2022 | AN, BR, DE, GA, RU
But What is Man’s Nature? The poet’s lofty principle about The buggering of boys’ butts was plain. When physical with guys, his only shout Was, “Follow nature.” Poets should refrain From filling holes not meant for making kids. A woman’s hairy hole was what...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2022 | BR, DE, GA, RU, SE, Ta
Boys, Even the Poets, Become Men When boys at school grow up, they go away And do the stupid things that boy-men do. They go do bed with women, or if gay, The boys make love while using cum as glue With other men, and if they’re young enough, These other males,...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2022 | BR, DE, GA, RU, SE
Bad Actor in Two Sonnets (Forever Entangled) Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Bad acting doesn’t cut the mustard for An audience; well, not for most. Brooke posed With trumpet (fake) and chiton. ...
by phillipw | Mar 4, 2022 | BR, DE, GA, RU, S
“A Channel Passage” The ugliness of love, that sickness known To him and everyone, deserves to be Discussed and sonnetized. A groan With nausea upon the sickening sea Of hormones, yep, testosterone and such, Has been the poets’ tune forever since...
by phillipw | Feb 4, 2022 | BR, DE, FI, HA, LO, SE
The Secret Life of Things For the space of a foot, The firefly’s light goes out: Loneliness. ~ Hokushi The firefly floats along in darkness, light, Dark, light. The floating is revealed alone By flashing, though the blinking is so slight That only...
by phillipw | Feb 2, 2022 | DE, FI, HA, LO, MA, SE
What Comes After Every Beauty How easily it Glows. How easily it goes Out, the firefly’s green. ~ Chine-jo The green is very faint but still is green. The flash is very brief but still a glint. Then after every blink comes dark, between The promise and the living,...
by phillipw | Jan 30, 2022 | DE, HA, YE
Poisonous Poetry The shell of the cicada; It, scraping, caroled itself Utterly away. ~ Bashō Mourning over its Dead body, over its shell; The cicada’s voice. ~ Yayu When I am just a heavy shell-like thing Awaiting worms and dessication, will...
by phillipw | Jan 16, 2022 | CH, DE, LO, RO, ST
Laid Asleep “we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul.” ~ William Wordsworth If laid asleep beside each other, we Might find some rest at last. We never laid In doubled love. Love’s serendipity Was...
by phillipw | Dec 14, 2021 | DE, SH, SI, TR
Simple ’Tis the gift to be simple ~ Shaker song The sea seems simple in our sight today. The waves, if varied, do not vary much. They come and go. They come and go. The way The sun comes up is ordinary, such As many days before. Of course it finds The mountain...
by phillipw | Dec 12, 2021 | DE, RA
Rape, Shadows, Spring Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When rape blares out in shadowed parts of fields, The spring is past. Rape glares in yellow swathes Across the farm. All other...
by phillipw | Dec 10, 2021 | DE, FU, PA, SA, VI
Flowers and Men and Fate Palled eons hover in the space between Each falling petal, each palled eon called Eternity or death. These, each one seen As equal, spy themselves as self-same, sprawled Like vileness, black. Each falling petal floats To vacuum. ...
by phillipw | Dec 2, 2021 | DE, RU, Ta
England’s Inoculation and Therapy for the Virus Called War, April 4 and St. George’s Day, 2015 Fate slapped him in his face and carried on With tattooed beauty on its fingers, palm, And skin much longer like a lingering dawn. His sonnet read out loud as if a psalm...
by phillipw | Sep 29, 2021 | BU, DE, HU, JA, MI, SA
If macho stars are doing sex with men, That must be covered up. Mere Vaseline Across the lens won’t do. It’s cock and hen That’s right for Hollywood. Shut down the scene If Marlon Brando kisses Dean and/or The other way around. Rock Hudson’s Day Is just for show. ...
by phillipw | Sep 26, 2021 | AE, DE, EM, PR, RA, WA, WH
Barbaric Yawp His “poetry” is not so much a thing Of barbarism as it is like Greek Or Roman oratory. In its ring It has the sound of bombast. No, not sleek, But more like overstated prose tricked out As verse on pages. Rhetoric high-flown Quite...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | CH, DE, MA, ST
Seek Him Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “And turneth the shadow of death into the morning.” When language stumbles, and when things are bound To some eternal silence, yes,...
by phillipw | Sep 7, 2021 | DE, HU, MO, MU
Butterflies Sing with the Tongues of Zen and Angels Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Let’s say that butterflies could sing. What songs Would come from them? Perhaps their first Would be selected from the...
by phillipw | Sep 5, 2021 | CH, DE, MA, ST
Smashed by Lightning into the Shenandoah Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Ecclesiastes 9:5 I wonder what he took to death of me. His death was whacking as a lightning strike. Then we were washed away. It...
by phillipw | Aug 9, 2021 | DE, JA, MY, PH, SC
Esthetic Ricochet A room with gilded sliding screens is flown Through by a swallow. It swoops in and out So swiftly that the moment makes a throne Of thrill and beauty. It is like a shout From Christ or Buddha, utter and so brief That brevity...
by phillipw | Jul 25, 2021 | CH, DE
Eyes and Hands Not Trying to Understand Depths The crows look down at Asian yellow hands At work with seedlings in the mud. The rice Is planted by the stooping peasant bands, Both birds and farmers with their eyeballs nice In looking, brown and black, at what they...
by phillipw | Jul 23, 2021 | DE
Found: Regal Treasures around a Vacuum “Elaborate ship burials filled with treasures were rare in Anglo-Saxon England, particularly toward the latter end of the early medieval period. The wealth of grave goods found at Sutton Hoo—as well as the positioning of the...
by phillipw | Jul 14, 2021 | DE, MO, PA, PH, SA, WH, WO
Grave Offering Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He breaks the burst of blossoms off the tree, The spray of life in blooms, and hauls it to The back part of the car. Cemetery Rows wait. He...
by phillipw | Jun 27, 2021 | BR, DE, PO, RU, WA
The Soldier Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem In Skyros’ grove of olives, olive leaves Are brought to death by being torn from trees. The party carries him in death and grieves To lay his...
by phillipw | Jun 3, 2021 | AD, AM, BI, BR, CH, DE, FI, GA, Ho, LO, MI, PO, RO, RU, SC, WO
Blue Rugby and Blue Gallipoli Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We do not think of Rubert Brooke in blue, When we remember him at all. We think of Brooke Between some pages of a volume, true To...
by phillipw | May 30, 2021 | BR, DE, HE, MA, PR, VI
The Bridegroom Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He wakes up in the bridal bed. The sheets Are white but crumpled. She is slumped beside Him in a different sleep. Her throat pulse...
by phillipw | May 9, 2021 | DE, FL, PE
Flowers and Flamingos Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It suffers violence but it does not know What violence is. Is blossom pink less real Because it does not know a cruel blow Might be delivered to...
by phillipw | May 2, 2021 | DE, PA
Lovers of the Past Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The lovers of the past have disappeared, Not just the famous ones from centuries gone, But also those from history so smeared With myth...
by phillipw | May 1, 2021 | BL, DE, MO, ON, UN
A Stretched Out Oneness Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem When flowers bloom we blossom in them, too, Inside their petals and their pinks, inside Electric yellow touched with orange. The blue...
by phillipw | Apr 4, 2021 | CH, DE, LO, ME, MO, ST
Submerged City You lie, a city now, beneath the clear Depths. You are still but we can see you move Because we knew you when you filled the sphere We call the past now. Memory can prove An old existence: archeology Can bring perfection up from underneath...
by phillipw | Mar 31, 2021 | CO, DE, JO, KE, ST, TU
Sovereign Keats Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem To bear all naked truths, And to envisage circumstance, all calm: That is the top of sovereignty. Hyperion II 203 To accept all With...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | AE, AL, AR, CA, DE, ES, SO
Libation Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Solutrean bison – By Museo de Altamira y D. Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 3.0 I sprinkled my best wine with dust from tombs, Presuming that...
by phillipw | Mar 27, 2021 | DE, SU
The Final Scene Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem For younger ones warm death feels picturesque. Young men imagine Romeo inside Their ribs. For young ones death is not grotesque But more...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2021 | DE, HE, LO, PA, RO, SE
Carving Out the Measure of Devotion Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You hardly know the truth of passion till You put it in the context of its doom. It seems as hot as sun spots or the spill Of lava...
by phillipw | Mar 24, 2021 | BE, DE, EN
Off and Off, or On and On Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem So . . . everything will die, disintegrate, Be lost, and atoms will be less than mist. So what? The poets have remarked this fate For...
by phillipw | Mar 23, 2021 | DE, SI
Obliteration When once you die, your secrets will be sure, As sure as Druids long gone now will speak No more of their religion, which is pure In silence. Hieroglyphs beneath the peak Of some poor pyramid where they have been Destroyed will hold its...
by phillipw | Mar 23, 2021 | DE, PR, RE
Antarctic Ambivalence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem We think of death . . . and warmth is hardly part Of such reflection. Buddha does not think Of death as much as he attempts to chart The...
by phillipw | Mar 21, 2021 | AN, CO, DE, DI, FA, FE, FU, HE, KE, PE, SE, SK
Coffin, Bed, Whatever He used to have a black nacrotic ____ But now, because of you, it swells again. It pulses and is desperate to _____ Out words and symphonies so full of pain That laughter is the only option. ____ Is there if you desire it in your throat. If...
by phillipw | Mar 13, 2021 | CE, DE, FA, GR, OP, TE, ZY
Recognition Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Pick up a torch and carry it up high, And carry it throughout the world, and you Will find that fame is gilding as a sly...
by phillipw | Mar 10, 2021 | AL, CR, DE, ED, FA, GA, GR, Ho, SC, SM
Wandering in Warriston Cemetery “Smith contracted diphtheria in November 1866 and, although he seemed to have recovered by Christmas, was then struck down by typhus. He died at home on 5 January 1867 at the very beginning of his thirty-seventh year, and was buried in...
by phillipw | Mar 9, 2021 | DE
Moonbeams “Slowly, silently, now the moon” ~ “Silver” by Walter de la Mare Our night the moon sends has a searching glow. The moon, unknowing, hangs its palest light Across our sphere but only we can know How violent the men are here who fight...
by phillipw | Mar 7, 2021 | DE
Last Wrongs Our fathers come and go, our mothers with Them. Like the snowflakes one October hour That melts them callous as the Trojan myth, Like raindrops on a desert cactus flower That drops them to the sand, our parents go. Our smaller towns and...
by phillipw | Mar 6, 2021 | DE, FR, JA, JU, LI, MA, NE, PS
Art for Farts’ Sake The monstrous lack of any sense in art Was followed by the monstrous lack of sense In thinking and philosophy . The part Of Derrida and Deconstruction’s dense Offensive springs to mind. A crazed theory Of this and that philosopher in turn...
by phillipw | Mar 5, 2021 | BI, DE, NI, WR
As Strong as Steely Silk Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem No hints are held in songs of birds about How soon their death will come. The wren can sing Its aria but death will have its clout. The...
by phillipw | Feb 23, 2021 | DE, ET, SP, SY, TY, WA, WI
Wind and Water Cleave and Cleave Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem .. We know that wind is spirit life. The wind Is God in symbol, and the angels, too, And demons, angels with God’s demons twinned....
by phillipw | Feb 14, 2021 | AP, AR, DE, LO, LU
Not to Be Eclipsed Artemis and Apollo Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem He settles into quietness, a moon That does not give a care about eclipse. He settles into desperate calm, a noon Ruled...
by phillipw | Jan 17, 2021 | AE, BE, DE, ES, HA, JO, PE
Sheer Vanity Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem It isn’t just a little happy face, This flower, though fat and happy this one is. Because of gorgeousness and grinning grace, It glories in...
by phillipw | Jan 15, 2021 | AN, DE, FA, FI, GR, PE
Withered Chances When just a boy, he broke the beauty, broke A peony. Then later, decades on He still remembered how he felt the choke Of anger like the pain a marathon Participant endures when he sustained His father’s wrath. It rankled still beyond...
by phillipw | Jan 14, 2021 | AE, BE, DE, ES, PE, PR
Dual Supplication against Death The flower burns its whitest white but not Alone. Beside it in the window glows A candle in the evening air so taut The flame burns on without a flicker. Those Who know the truth can see that light is light In spirit even when the...
by phillipw | Jan 9, 2021 | CH, DE, ST
The Christian Tree Surgeon The disappearance of a man who loved The trees he killed is life contained in brief. Hiked up among the limbs he chopped and, gloved To save his hands, he felt a smallish grief In sawing through to death. He sometimes fell And suffered...
by phillipw | Jan 9, 2021 | DE, LO, MO
Vanishing Truth Each meeting is the start of parting. Who He might become or who she might become, No matter what, what finally comes through Is vacuum. Each beauty will succumb. Your newborn son will grow and go away— And he will die. Perhaps you will...
by phillipw | Jan 1, 2021 | DE, GO, GR, JE
A Sparrow Falls in Eternity He felt a small, one moment’s stress when he Rode past the fox in Slough. The coach swept by It, beautiful, quite orange. Divinity Would also have looked down from God-filled sky Since He is everywhere. He would have seen The...
by phillipw | Dec 29, 2020 | DE, MO
Remaining with Them is Like Losing Them To hold on to the dead is to forsake Them. Holding on is like a woman in Denial when divorced. The pulse of ache Will not decrease no matter what his sin Was. Hoping for his love again will shove Him even farther into...
by phillipw | Dec 28, 2020 | DE, MO
No Combination Code for the Vault All roads can lead you there but no road back. You call the stillness beauty and full peace But at a distance it seems threat as black As deathless fate. Seek nothing of caprice Where these paths go. This destination serves One...
by phillipw | Dec 28, 2020 | DE, HE, IM, OD, TE, UL
His Beautiful Son Does Not Have the Brains Odysseus decides he will not die. This glares as clear to him as April light On Ithaca. He knows this is awry So he will have to trick the gods. Some sleight Of mental hand will come to him in time. He guesses he will have...
by phillipw | Dec 27, 2020 | AE, DE, GR, TH
The Darkened Sea Imagine, then, that salt waves draw the soul Of hyacinths, their purple fragrance down, The fragrance of high lilacs from rock knoll, And cliff, and pathway of an island’s crown To blue Aegean stretches. Purple falls To salt and blue. The...
by phillipw | Dec 24, 2020 | CH, DE, FR, LO, MA, MO, PH, WH
Doppelgängers Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem You almost smell despair of men alone When they have lost that one friend, that one near They found they loved as if a holy clone Had...
by phillipw | Dec 15, 2020 | CA, CE, CO, DE, FU, GR, MO, SM, TI, TO
Artless as L. S. Lowry A Rembrandt darkness falls upon us, they And me. I cannot see them now except As figures draped in richest robes. The prey Of time (called death) they’ve worn brocade and slept In sand beneath the ground, each separate plot Concealing...
by phillipw | Dec 9, 2020 | CO, DE, DI, GH, MA, OR, PE, RE, SO, SP
Reincarnation The spirit wishes it could look back to Its body, not the rotted one, and see The firm young form with hair and holy blue Of Mary’s robe in clear young eyes still free Of intimations of their death. The hair, The blond head...
by phillipw | Nov 29, 2020 | AL, AN, DE, EP, GR, HE, IS, LU, MA, PH, PL, SE
Healthy Hedonism; and, Holy Hedonism, Paired Sonnets Healthy Hedonism Tattoo upon yourself this perfect law— The sacredness of pleasure is above The other, puny principles. The awe That it deserves, like God in love, Confirms that thrills, inviolate and...
by phillipw | Nov 28, 2020 | DE, LO, MA, SE
Redolence Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem As empty as a bed without a man, His warmth and hair, his shoulder and his thrust, His smell and breath, that widened, spread thigh span, Is...
by phillipw | Nov 12, 2020 | DE, DI, MU, NE, SE, VI
Flies “I am a crazed dingo with fresh babies lying in a circle around me.” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls In Dennis Nilsen’s dreams a garland of Young men is laid out all around him for His delectation. They had wanted love (Or maybe Smirnoff...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | CA, CO, DE, DO, Ho, PE, SE
The Cat Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem That cat will lie on what you want or walk Where you would go. He curls round and round As if developing his om to mock Your zen-less...
by phillipw | Nov 11, 2020 | AR, CH, DE, MO, PA, ST, WE
Painting as False Prophet in Acrylic Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem The image in the bedroom looks out through The window, artwork gazing out As if a seer. It does not see blue Of...
by phillipw | Nov 9, 2020 | DE, KI, PA, SE, UN
Hissing “skin redolent with unspoken kisses” ~ Jaime Mathis, It Rises and Falls “Never let a fool kiss you and never let a kiss fool you.” A kiss, if spoken or unspoken, smells Of nothing. Kisses touching skin or lips, Those kisses licking...
by phillipw | Oct 27, 2020 | CH, DE, FR, GR, MO, ST
Memorial Maple A piercing red shouts out. The border’s end Is painful to the organs, heart, and mind, And eyes. It calls, “Forgotten is your friend, Forgotten through the year until I blind You with my raucous scarlet autumn leaves. You pass me every day...
by phillipw | Oct 26, 2020 | CH, CO, DE, FI, GO, HA, JE, PO, VI
Cormorants Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem Morning twilight; in Their basket the cormorants Asleep, exhausted. ~ Shiki The poet notices the tiny things,...
by phillipw | Oct 23, 2020 | DE, FE, FR, PH, PS, SI
Thou Shalt not Bear False Witness Sigmund Freud: “There is nothing instinctual in us which responds to a belief in death.” Freud also says, “This may even be the secret of heroism.” Our hearts refuse to nod to death. No, more Than that, they fail to hear it...
by phillipw | Oct 22, 2020 | DE, NO
Astonishments You don’t want just astonishments. They bore You, not at first, but thrills of newness nag Away until in later years the gore Of slashing at the lovely starts to drag Your feelings down and then at last you wish For something...